God has made us to be
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“We have focused on the DOING—God is looking for those who will concentrate on BEING.” Greg Austin
God created us through regeneration and this is not of our doing. He has made us new beings—to be to His glory in the community of the King who was and is and is coming.
Regeneration
“Regeneration” in Titus, is the same word Jesus used when He spoke of coming again (Matthew 19:28). There, regeneration /paliggenesia is the again genesis of heaven and earth and the saints and all creation. Here it applies to us when we are saved. Through regeneration, God saves us and gives us new birth and new life in prolog to life in the world to come. When we turn to Jesus, God regenerates us and gives us new birth as new creatures. At Jesus’ second coming we will receive our glorified bodies. Even though our body will die unless Jesus returns before then, our inner being is alive unto God.
- Once we too were foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to many kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in wickedness and jealousy, being hated and hating one another.
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But when God our Savior showed how kind He is and how He loves us, He saved us, not because of any good works we did but because He was merciful. He saved us by the washing (of regeneration) in which the Holy Spirit gives us a new birth and a new life. He poured a rich measure of this Spirit on us through Jesus Christ our Savior, to justify us by a gift of his undeserved love /charis-grace so that we might become heirs in keeping with the hope of everlasting life. You can depend on this statement.
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And I want you to insist on these things so that those who believe in God have their minds on being busy with good works. This is good, and it helps other people. Titus 3:3-8 AAT
God has made us fit for the kingdom by giving us faith, not of our own doing. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—not because of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 RSV). The faith God gives us is reckoned to us as righteousness and Jesus’ resurrection is our justification. Paul gave us the example of the Abraham’s faith to help us see this.
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It wasn’t by the Law that Abraham or his descendants got the promise that the world should be theirs but by the righteousness of faith.
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There was no unbelief to make him doubt what God promised, but by faith he got strong and gave glory to God. He was fully convinced God could do what He promised. That is why he was counted righteous. But the words he was counted righteous were written not only for him but also for us. He had in mind already then to count us righteous on the basis of our believing in Him who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead. It was He who was handed over to death for our transgressions and then was raised for our justification.
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Now that we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave us the way to come to God’s love in which we stand. And we feel proud as we hope for God’s glory.
- More than that, we also feel proud of our sufferings. We know suffering stirs up the power to endure, and if we endure, we prove our strength, and if we prove our strength, we have hope. In this hope we’re not disappointed, because the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us, poured God’s love into our hearts. Romans 4:13, 20-25, 5:1-5 AAT
Abraham’s faith was reckoned to him righteousness; so is ours. Therefore, we have peace with God. Standing in this grace and soaking up God’s love poured into our hearts is a huge part of being.
John writes, God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. … As He is so are we in this world.
- Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his own Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
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In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the Day of Judgment, because as He is so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love.
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We love, because he first loved us. If any one says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also. 1 John 4:7-21 RSV
Much is conveyed in those few words. Let us love one another. God loved us. God abides in us. God has given us of His own Spirit so we know we abide in Him. He sent His Son as Savior. So we know and believe the love God has for us. In this is love perfected. “His love has accomplished what He wants when we can look ahead confidently to the day of judgment because we are what His is in this world” (1 John 4:17 AAT). Paul explains,
- The love of Christ compels us because we’re convinced One died for all and so all have died. He died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died and rose for them.
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And so from now on we don’t think of anyone only as a human being. Once we thought of Christ only as a man, but not now anymore. So if anyone is in Christ, he is a new being. The old things have passed away. They have become new.
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But God has done it all. When we were His enemies, through Christ He made us His friends and gave us the work of making friend of enemies. 2 Corinthians 5:14-18 RSV
“The love of Christ compels us because we’re convinced One died for all and so all have died. He died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died and rose for them.” Communion in Christ is so deep, “One died for all and so all have died.” He was resurrected. We have been regenerated. “He died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died and rose for them.”
Since we are a new order of mankind, we should no longer regard one another only as human beings. Rather, as God’s new beings. All who believe in Jesus the Messiah as their Savior are a new order of creation with a new life.
God made us new creatures to live in His kingdom now and in the things that are to come. We know He made us what we are. But, has it dawned on our hearts. Do we live as if we really know who we are? We need to encourage one another by telling each other God has made us a new order of creation. Husbands need to tell their wives, “Honey, you are a new order of creation.” Wives need to tell their husbands what God has made them. As parents, we can tell our children what God has made them and the destiny He has given them. We need to hear such words of encouragement from one another.
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Water baptism
Water baptism is the prophetic sign of the washing of regeneration “in which the Holy Spirit gives us a new birth and a new life.” It is the sign that our old earthly self is dead and buried with Messiah Jesus and we have been raised with the Messiah and our life is hid with the Messiah in God.
- See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.
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For in him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fulness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
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And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.
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Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
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If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, ”Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human precepts and doctrines? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.
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If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Colossians 2:8-23; 3:1-3 RSV
The depth of relationship revealed in God’s Word is beyond human comprehension. But, it is not beyond new beings. God has enlightened the eyes of our hearts so we may know what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints (Ephesians 1:18).
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To be
“To be” means to exist or to happen. The best example of being is God, the Great I Am. “We are” is the first person plural of to be. We are what God has made us and this is not of our doing.
When Paul was in Athens, he saw they had statues of false Gods everywhere. The philosophies they held make New Age baloney look tame. The people had itching ears for anything new or unusual. So, some of them brought Paul to the city courtyard to tell them something new. He told them,
- Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for In him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your poets have said, “For we are indeed his offspring.” Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man.
- The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.”
- So Paul went out from among them. But some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Are-opagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Acts 17:22-34 (Job 12:10; Daniel 5:23). RSV
Paul preached the God who “gives to all men life and breath and everything.” “In Him we live and move and have our being.” He preached Jesus dead and resurrected, who will judge the world in righteousness. “And we look for the resurrection of the dead and life in the world to come” (Apostles Creed).
In view of the greatness of God, Paul urged believers to present their bodies as living sacrifices dedicated to God and pleasing to Him, to be to His glory.
- O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
- How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
- For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?
- Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?
- For from him and through him and to him are all things.
- To him be glory for ever. Amen.
- I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him. For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Romans 11:33-36; 12:1-5 RSV
- None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Romans 14:7-9
Bill Bremer
